Music of 2011

Yesterday morning, I received an email from SparkPeople, as I do every Tuesday morning and when I opened up to glance the links, see if anything struck my fancy, and they had one about the 50 best workout songs of 2011. Now, I am not going to make a list of 50 jams that were on my iPod this year, one because I don't want to and two I don't want anyone making fun of my musical taste, although it is way better than yours. So I'll do a shortened list of 15 that were jamming on my iPod this year, and in no particular order...

1. Till the World Ends

2. Edge of Glory

3. Show Goes On

4. I'll be waiting

5. Born this Way

6. Paradise

7. Party Rock Anthem

8. Not Over You

9. Good Feeling by Florida

10. Any and all Maroon 5

11. Dancing on my own

12. Grenade

13. Who Says

14. We Found Love

15. Domino

And I am not going to lie, Justin Timberlake's "Future Sex, Love Sounds" songs came into rotation pretty regularly throughout the year, and I don't see that changing. And maybe some "Best of" lists can be the theme for these last few blog posts of 2011.

Crafting through the Holidays

Saturday I turned up the heat on the holiday spirit. Not only did I complete the rest of myChristmas shopping, but Kate, Carly and I decided to do a Cookies and Cocktails party...complete with sequenced Santa hats (don't tell me the real Santa doesn't have one). We researched some cute cookie ideas, cocktail ideas, and Kate made some delicious cookie dough. We gathered on the chilly December Saturday night and after some super yum dinner, courtesy of Carlos, and a couple of cocktails, we got to work! We had sugar and gingerbread cookie dough and a ton of cookie cutters, we made a TON of christmas cookies--I think we each went home with 2 dozen, at least. Here are some highlights of the evening...

I had to crop Kate's apron. But it was red, green and white and therefore festive.

We googled this idea for melting snowmen cookies. Easy peasy with marshmallows as heads. Well, I suppose I should say easy peasy in the loosest sense of the word. Here's what they should have looked like:

Those were Carly's of course. And below are mine. I thought it would look more realistic if I smushed their heads down. But then the red frosting for eyes just got a little too creepy.

Some sweet sparkle hats...thank you Target for doing your part to bedazzle our wardrobe and closet.

And a cookie cocktail party and holiday party just isn't complete without a signature cocktail courtesy of Emril Lagasse. Poinsettia Cocktail? 1 part champagne, 1 part vodka, 2 parts cranberry juice, pomegranate seeds and lemon for garnish. Kudos Emril, you really outdid yourself with that one. Two thumbs up.

And then some action shots of rolling out the dough...

And then the cookie decorating madness really commenced. I think we were decorating for a good 2 hours. Maybe not, I have no sense of time.

And of course, no cookie decorating is complete without a "J for Julie!" but I couldn't fit that on my stocking so a "J!" will have to do.

Two craft projects in two months documented. CHECK. Now just have to find a craft to keep the craft bug going through 2012!

And it's the Holiday Season!

The holiday spirit is in full swing in San Carlos. Slowly but surely, lights are being hung, families are purchasing Christmas trees and the post office is jam packed-thank you PostMaster Gary. I love the lead-up to Christmas and with that said, here are just some highlights of the San Carlos Holiday extravaganza:

1. Eucalyptus Street. To those native San Carlosians, they know of this street well. Not only can you see it from Alameda, overlooking most of San Carlos, but also for the traffic that's generated because of it (small town living does not welcome traffic, especially on city streets). For those who are unfamiliar, this street is essentially a whole block of Clark Griswolds who deck their houses out and jack up their electrical bills for the month of December. Every square inch of the street is covered with white and colored lights, ornaments, fake santas (sometimes we get a special appreance from him) and sometimes even snow. I believe one guy started it and then eventually the whole street caught on. It's become the thing to do in San Carlos, and even other Peninsula cities are migrating to see the display! It gets so busy that they make it a one way, and it's PACKED on the weekend with walkers going down the street. The residents are even taking the opportunity to make a profit when they sell hot chocolate/coffee/tea on the weekend nights--at least they have in the past--and you can only imagine that it's a hella lucrative idea! But maybe they're trying to break even from their astronomical power bills.

2. 96.5/94.5/Pandora: 24x7 Christmas music. What some may call a nightmare - something equivalent to nails on a chalkboard - I consider pure awesomeness. Seeing as I am a commuter now, I get to listen to it stuck in traffic, on my Pandora station in the office, and back onto the stations on my way home. Pure. Satisfaction. Oh and my favorite song that only comes on once in a blue moon? Happy Holidays by Andy Williams. Youtube it. You won't be disappointed.

3. X-Mas movies: This is a given. Sunday I watched my ALL-TIME favorite holiday flick, Miracle on 34th Street (1994 version). What more could you ask for, it's got humor, it's touching, it's the whole shebang. Some other favorites include: The Santa Clause, Home Alone (1 & 2), Elf, White Christmas and of course, Muppet Christmas Carol (not really sure why they insist on making that story again and again when the Muppets got it right). Watch those and you wont be disappointed either. And what's a better way to spend a weekend in December than watching one of these movies, reciting them word for word?

4. Christmas drinks: They could be my favorite because they usually include champagne - perhaps God's gift to the planet. And seeing as I was just chatting with Kate about signature drinks for the holiday, but I think we have another winner on our hand: Poinsettia Cocktail AND who could forget the 2009 classic: Citrus Champagne Punch (took an entire group down but my god was it delicious).

Ok those are just a few of my favorite things. I am sure there are more, but that's enough for now.

#ACandyCaneSoundsBombRightNow

Thanksgiving Crafts

A few weeks ago, I came across a craft when Lady Di and I were looking for soup recipes. So naturally, I enlisted someone more crafty than myself to help, Carly. So we had 26 mini turkeys to make to use for our name tags. And this funtivity includes: Candy Corn, Oreos, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, Whoppers, and lots of frosting.

Here she is beginning to cut off the beaks for the noses (the candy corn).

This was our first attempt when we were making one complete turkey before moving on to the next. Obviously they were looking a little drunk. So we decided to regroup and start an assembly line.

Beginning with the Reeses Peanut Butter cups and Candy Corn for the arms, all lined up!

Slowly coming together but looking better since we had the assembly line.

The first completed turkey, decked out with eye balls and orange frosting feet. This one even had an attempt for a gobbler, but it was a little see through, so we decided to pass on that. But solid attempt.

All of the turkeys lined up to be placed on the table.

The finished product sitting on the table! By the end of the night, some turkeys were missing their candy corn (not because they fell off, but due to people needing a Candy Corn fix) and some were completely missing--a few people were a little hungry.

A Thanksgiving Treat

It's Thanksgiving and this week I randomly remembered a story that we had to write in 6th grade for the creative writing and was even a top 3 finalist. After tearing my room apart, I finally tracked it down and thought it would be fun to post, word for word (with the exception of a few grammatical updates) and include my sweet cover art. Without further ado...

Hi, I'm here to tell you about my "Great Escape or I'll be an Entree" story. First let me start from the top. My name is Glenn, the Turkey. I am going to be eaten for Thanksgiving. Hopefully, I can escape! I was born in a barn and I lived in a barn with my family. On every holiday, except Thanksgiving, the farmer goes to the corner store and buys a ham like normal people. But no, on Thanksgiving, they kill turkeys. My parents got killed, but this year the tradition stops--I'm going to escape!

So I made my plan; it goes as follows: get out of this barn as soon and as the door opens, I'm out of here. About an hour later, the door opens to feed us. Well, I have to make a choice, I can be free and starve or I can eat and then be free? I guess I'll take a few bites...then I'll be on my way to freedom. So I took a couple of bites, then I'll be on my way. I'm free!! Yeah Yeah Yeah! I'm free!! But I get as far as picket fence. The gate was closed. So I turned around and saw the farmer running so I ran behind the barn. What luck! An over-turned barrel saying, "Come in and hide." So I followed the talking barrel. The farmer looked around and said, "As soon as I find him, he is going to be my entree on the 26th!" and then he walked away.

My feathers were sticking up on the tips. Since I had so much time, I could use a good nap--to ease eagerness. For the next two hours, I napped. Let me remind you, it was the 24th, two days before the big feast, which was my date with death. As I am contemplating this awful thought, suddenly, a pig came into the barrel. I was so scared, I ran into the back of the barrel, shaking my white and dark meat away. "Oink, oink, oink," he said. "Get lost" I snapped, and he followed suit about 2 minutes later. My assertiveness took care of that pig! The clock is ticking, it is now, Wednesday the 25th, the day before Thanksgiving.

My last day of life! Let me tell you, it isn't easy. You have so much to do, in so little time; like plan your coffin in someone's stomach. I bet it isn't all that comfortable. As I was thinking about my friends and family who have been eaten before me, I spotted a hole in the wall. That was my ticket to the outside. So I ran as fast as my two webbed feet would take me. But just as I am tasting the sweet taste of freedom, my feathers get stuck. I was turned around and spotted the farmer, running towards me. I pushed as hard as I could. It was like God was telling me, "freedom has a price of losing feathers!" So I said to myself, "To be free with fewer feathers or not to be free? That is the question! I'll go...free!" What luck! I got out leaving just a few feathers behind.

"I'm free, I'm free! But my bottom hurts!" As I am waddling away as fast as I can, I hear a gun shot. Boom! "Yikes, he's shooting at me!" Hop! Hop! Hop! Hop! Boom! Then, like the angels were looking down on me, the farmer said, "Shoot, I'm out of bullets! I suppose I can use a hen and say it's a turkey."

Then and there I knew it wasn't my last day on earth. Not looking where I was going I ran into a tree log and did a flip in the air, and landed right on my face. Anyway, I now live with the wild turkeys. They al escaped like me and are all very nice indeed! Oh I am so happy now. Now, on every Thanksgiving, I remember the great escape from being the Thanksgiving feast!

Dated 11.22.98. Happy Thanksgiving!

Not a typical Friday night

On Friday night, Marko had a bean up his nose and took Lady Di, Lisa and myself up to the city to see Turnadot. For all of you scratching your heads thinking what the heck is that, that's what I've been saying, and well it's an opera.

For months Marko has been mentioning that we will be doing this and at the time November just seemed so far away. And before we knew it, November had snuck up on us and off we went to the SF Opera House last Frida night. I'll be honest, 3/4 of the car hemmed and hawed all the way up to the city, mostly through dinner, the walk from the restaurant to the Opera, when we got a glass of wine, when we sat down, and up until the lights dimmed, when Lady Di and I let out a collected, Hmph. And for those who have never been to one before, it's in all Italian (no my semester in Florence didn't really help) and they sing at a pitch I only reach while sneezing. And you know, I don't think I could even tell you what they were saying if they were singing in English, but, they do have subtitles that are projected above the stage--this would have come in handy if I had remembered my glasses.(Oopsies and yes, I am officially contemplating contacts...emphasis on the contemplating).

The Bonino's reception of this opera was pretty much evenly divided. Marko was all about it, like a pig in mud and Lisa seemed to have enjoyed herself. She was sitting to my left and was being the good daughter and tried to do her best to have a positive outlook on this experience and she was listening to the music and reading the subtitles (quite the contrast to me). Then there was Lady Di and me. I was squinting to read the subtitles and yet actively trying to fall asleep and then my mom was out like a light within 5 minutes.I was so jealous, all I wanted to do was catch some z's and Lady Di beat me to it. In fact, she proceeded to nap during the other two acts! Only really being chatty during the 20 minute intermissions (that's right intermissions--one in between each act--not my definition of efficiency). I leaned over to Marko during one of the intermissions and told him that it was the most expensive nap he's paid for, that he didn't take!

Looking past the opera itself for a minute, the SF Opera House is absoltutely beautiful in architecture. Gold crown molding in the ceiling, marble floors, classy bathrooms (so Lisa says). And of course the mix of people was definitely interesting. I guess I was expecting a bunch of older couples to be in attendance, but the crowd was pretty much all over the board. There were some Jay-Gloria couples (older men with wife #2 or #3), men in Kilts, women dressed to the nines, a woman wearing Shape-ups, kids dressed up like they were going to weddings, and everything in between.

But we all powered through the 3.5 hours and got some culture. When Marko tried to make a point that next year when we go...Lady Di cut him off and told him she's good for the next 10 years. Well said, Mom, well said. In a nutshell, while the music is pretty, opera just ain't my cup of tea.

#Midispiacemanomipiaceopera

(imagine me singing that at an inaudiable pitch and you'll begin to understand my Friday night)

People helping people

Yesterday I ran into a nice surprise. When I got a pretty phenomenal coupon to Gap, courtesy of the Gap credit card, and skipped my way off to spend it. So when I read it, I misread the fine print...isn’t that always the case? I read it as, “you can use this at Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic as long as you use your Gap Credit Card” Well, that wasn’t the case because when I went to the cash register at Old Navy yesterday and was all stoked to pay so I could get a super good discount and surprise surprise, it was a Gap store coupon only. While bummed, I prepared to swipe my card anyhow (I snagged some pretty sweet deals) and the lady next to me threw a $20 off coupon at me. I tried to say no thanks, but she told me take it and that she didn’t spend enough to have it work and just as I get out a “No I can’t but thank you” she was gone in a flash.

That’s pretty much the long and short of it, but I thought it was a nice story. And I’m not saying that since I got to utilize that $20 discount.

#Ineedtopayattentiontothefineprint

Sleepy San Carlos

Seeing as this blog is paritally named after the City of Good Living, maybe I should cover something San Carlos once in a while. Well, about a month or maybe even a month and a half ago, San Carlos officially satisfied any citizen's caffine addiction when they opened a Peet's coffee. For most places, this really wouldn't matter, but for San Carlos, who's downtown consists of one street, this caused the perfect aroma of pandamonium and a shot of praise. (Get ready for coffee analogies)

Some background: Laurel Street Main Drag consists of three healthy blocks where there's a heavy concentration of shops, restaurants, town essentials (market, banks, post office) and of course coffee. On the three blocks, and I'm not even going into side streets, we have 2 Starbucks (yes, that did make the 5:00 news), two mom & pop coffee houses, two bakerys that do sell fancy coffee (as Nonni would call it, essentialy anything that's not black coffee from a Mr. Coffee) and now a Peet's. That's a whole lot of coffee for a 3 block stretch. And if you continue down beyond Laurel Main Drag, there's even more, although they are fewer and farther between. I get the jolts just thinking about all that caffine bouncing off the sidewalks.

And the people in my circuit were somewhat miffed that they were putting another large coffee chain on Laurel, almost directly across from Plantation (one of the mom & pops). As if having two Starbucks on one street were bad enough! But, Plantation always has a steady stream of customers (Lady Di has her spot staked out on Friday mornings), yummy coffee, and friendly atmostphere. Some say (I won't name names) "boo Peet's" when the subject is brought up and a few select have become regulars at the popular chain (and I mean popular, there's always a huge line). But only time will tell I suppose.

But this begs the question, with all of these shops, the corporate blended in with mom & pops, was San Carlos abnormally sleepy in the past? Are we all picky citizens when it comes to a cup of coffee? Or does everyone happen to feel the need for a coffee date at the same time which is a fire hazard so they thought it was necessary to open as many as possible? I have no idea. Maybe the corporations want to sneak in on our small town livin. Who knows! I think this is a bit of overkill though, why won't they open another post office so we don't spend 45 minutes in line, especially during the holiday? Now that would satisfy a fire-hazard. Seeing as our small city is brooooke, looks like that won't happen, so looks like coffee houses it is.

Now if they only opened up a Coffee Bean...

#Icouldgoforskinnyvanillalatterightaboutnow

I heart the Muppets

Well for about 10 hours, there was a subtle ray of hope. A ray of hope that the beloved Muppets would step in and host the Oscars in 2012. As soon as it was confirmed that Eddie Murphy was stepping down, the Muppets fan page on Facebook was burning up with "likes" and I am proud to call myself one of them! In these few hours where I was getting so excited for the very rare possibility, people were going around pooh-poohing the idea, saying "They're the muppets!" To which I still profoundly respond, "Exactly, They're the Muppets!" And...without further ado, my top 10 reasons why they should host the 2012 Oscars:

1. They're family friendly. While some may say they're solely for the kiddies, because let's face it, you get hooked when you're a kid, but they stick to you like glue! And no matter how old, you they're still entertaining!

2. They don’t have any enemies, because who outwardly hates the muppets? Well, except for Statler and Waldorf the two old men who hates everything.

3. Always put on an awesome musical number. Must I remind you of the sweet and beatiful Rainbow Connection, the downright funny and entertaing Cabin Fever, the artistically simple, yet satisfying , Mahnah Manah? They may be attached to humans, running around in black suits (making them almost invisible), but boy can they sing.

4. Rizzo the Rat and Gonzo. Nuff said

5. They appeal to masses with Sam the American (can’t place enough emphasis on that) Eagle to Pepe the Shrimp!

6. You'll get lots of punny jokes courtesy of Fozzie the Bear and the gang.

7. Seeing as it's a 3 hour broadcast, we wont get sick of one host, they'll all be rotating in and out and all be running around the stage instead of the same person all night.

8. They've never been to the Oscars before, even though they've starred in countless films--some that could have been Oscar contenders, Muppet Treasure Island, the Muppet Movie, A Muppet Christmas Carol...I could go on and on...

9. If movie stars can swoop in on their movies, then why can't they swoop in on movie star's nights?

10. After last year's, really, there's no where to go but up.

Well, that's it in a nutshell, but really, they're just awesome, so why the heck not? Although this was a short lived dream, they announced earlier today that Billy Crystal is going to host, which I have to say is a solid second choice. Maybe the Muppets could at least make an apperance?

#GodblessJasonSegelforbringingusanotherMuppetmovie

What's a Hashtag?

Recently, I have seen a lot of hype surrounding the hashtag. For a while, I had no idea what it was or what it meant. Finally, someone pointed out to me that it's that slanted pound sign thing that's all over Twitter, and recently infiltrating the book. Before long it will probably be in emails, text messages and possibly in everyday talk. My guess is mostly in the tween market, and slowly they would bring it to HS and then it would skip over college, because that's just not that cool, and go straight to the parental circuit who don't understand what it is but use it anyway.

From what I gather, you just tack a hashtag to a thought, like #thoughtyoushouldknow or #icantthinkofanymoreexamples. Actually, that last one I just made up because I've become so accustomed to ignoring them, but I assume that's something that you can do with them. I don't know though, I could be wrong. But what do they represent? Are there any rules to these things? Do they follow a specific formula? Do they have to have a page on twitter to give them credibility? Can anyone make them up? These are all questions that wikipedia does not answer for me. Ok. I just did another google search (I need to make sure I am an informed writer afterall) and according to Twitter, they're used for keywords or "trends" but that doesn't exactly tell me anything.

But besides the basic rules, does it link you to something Twitter related? Are the people at Twitter just making page after page after page of sayings that someone might consider to say after a hashtag? If that were true, can you imagine the Twitter offices? At that point just hire someone to rattle of random ideas that could one day, potentially become a keyword or trend. Get a kid to just start talking and have a team of fast typing hashtag enthusiasts to design at will. I doubt that's how it works though--again I don't know.

Even my fave USA show, Psych, understands what the heck it is since they have this thing on Facebook now called the "Hastag Killer" and I'll be honest, I don't really understand what exactly that is either (i'll put it on my list of things to investigate and report back later) but it's got this hashtag thing so I suppose it's trendy. Leave it to me to not know anything about it until way after the fact, but maybe I'll start signing off with these things and maybe I'll catch on.

#maybebingwillprovidebettersearchresultsforhashtags

Kudos and Boos

Here we go, here we go...

Kudos to the royal pregnancy rumors already hitting full force! That didn't take long, actually, it kind of did, with these tabloids, but when Kate Middleton declined a peanut butter food, not sure what, maybe it was a sandwich I don't know, but she declined AND shot Prince William a look of, no you fool. Now that look could have been a look of, no you fool I: don't eat peanut butter, I don't like peanut butter, or I can't eat peanut butter. Seeing as I wasn't there, I can't judge accurately of what kind of look it was, but I wouldn't be surprised if she was pregnant! Lady Di (Princess Di that is, not my mom) was pregnant within the first year, they recently passed a law saying that if the first born were a daughter, she could go on to be queen, and not to mention there's a lot of pressure on Will and Kate to pop out a kid. Well, I wouldn't be surprised.

Boos to the one and only Kardashian divorce drama! This week, the Kardashian enterprise was sent into a media whirlwind when Kim K announced her divorce. Within a few hours the whole family was all over twitter, the book, any news outlet that would take them, spewing how much Kim was distraught over her brief, yet spensy, wedding. Therefore, it didn't take long before I was over it all. Although, I will not be ashamed to say, I am interested to see how it will actually play out over the course of the next season of "Kim and Kourtney Take New York." Man, Khloe and Lamar (who met and married in under a month) are looking pretty damn good right now!

Kudos to Stanley Roberts for his investigative reporting for his segment "People behaving badly with Stanley Roberts" and also kudos out to Tom Repetto for fining us this hilarious video gem (click here)! Stanley just was at the right place at the right time to catch this bad-mouthed 20 something in a moment that no one should be on tape--getting a traffic ticket. Think of all the emotions that go into those few minutes, anger, regret, annoyance, to name a few, and to get it all on tape and broadcasted to the entire Bay, well that catastrohic cocktail does not make for a person's finest hour. And for this guy, it wasn't. But, I've decided that Stanley Roberts is the Bay's best kept secret, but I think I'll be a regular now.

Boos to the Bieber baby drama! This week a random teen is claiming that she had teen sensation's baby. In fact, he may have to comply with a DNA test next month. Now, this story is completely absurd, but part of me wishes it was true (because what a bombshell that would be) BUT where the craziness really comes out, is that JB's diehard fans (all under the age of 15) are actually sending death threats to the supposed baby mama. First of all, how do the diehards even know what a death threat is? And, what's to stop the next crazy fan from claiming that she had his other baby? We will just have to wait and see until next month when the results come out!

Kudos to Nonni! This week is her birthday--she has more plans to celebrate than anyone. Who said that your social schedule diminishes as you get older? In fact, the Norcal Bonino's are flying down to LA for the weekend this weekend to help her celebrate, but she's got the BBD (bigger, better deal) on Saturday so we're left on our own--although we're seeing Claire's play!!--but still, I hope I have a social schedule like her when I'm her age!

Boos to a new week of work! Can't it just be Friday already?!

Wow, a Kudos and Boos on an actual Sunday? When was the last time that happened?

Blog ADD

I'll keep this short. If you're keeping count, and it's pretty likely that I might be the only one who is, this marks the third time that I have given the blog an new look. The blue background was getting a little boring and they've advertised some new templates and I jumped on it. It's a new look. A Fall look. Who knows, maybe I'll start updating them on a seasonal basis. Keep you on your toes.

They only speak the truth!

This week, all tabloids are rejoycing. Yesterday they have finally been vindicated with the public. What started out as a slow news day (higlighting Prince William and Kate receiving 60,000 pieces of fan mail-no joke that was on people.com yesterday morning) turned into a frenzy at 10:30 PST. First, one story that they have been speculating about for the past 71 days was confirmed correct, Kim Kardashian filed for divorce from her NBA "star" husband just a 72 days after they said I do in a somewhat over the top wedding. Then just hours later, Jessica Simpson confirms that she is in fact pregnant. After postponing her wedding a few months ago (I think we all know the reason why now!) and investing in baggy clothes, the paparazzi have been all over this like a cheap white suit.

With these two "bombshells" being dropped, I admit, they have gained a little more street cred in my book. How could they not? They've been fueling the fire of these two stories and speculating some pretty major stories in celebrity history, that most of the time end up being true. For example, Leann Rimes and Eddie Cibrian's affair scandal (although those two could have tried a little harder to not be SO obvious), John Gosslin (another easy peasy one), the list goes on and on. However, there was one HUGE story that slipped past him--Arnold and his mistress. That one seemed to come out of left field. But that's a whole other can of worms that we won't get into.

But 90 percent of these stories don't just come out of thin air. It's their day (and sometimes night) job to tail these people as they go out to get their milk, eat their lunch at some super trendy hole in the wall, drive in their tricked-out Land Rover. And it's just a bonus when they find them doing something that they're not supposed to be doing. Their livlihood depends on it. And they do it for people like me who love celebrities.

After this week, I think we all will take the next celebrity who yells from the top of their lungs that the tabliods make this stuff up with a grain of salt. Next thing you know, some of their stories about aliens obducting some people will turn out to be true. They can't just make this stuff up.

Out of this World

Now this post is long overdue, but not last saturday but the saturday before, Carly, Vanessa and I threw our good friend Julia and her fiance Jeremy, an engagement party. A space themed engagement party that is. And boy did we take that theme and run, or should I say sky rocket.

They've been engaged since February, so in true Carly-Vanessa-Julie fashion, we were behind and decided in September to throw a party. Then, in even more Carly-Vanessa-Julie fashion, the weekend before our party, we thought, gee, we should really get on the logistics. Of course it happened to be a crazy busy week for the three of us, and then to add this party on top, well we were all running around like chickens with our heads cut off. I was working with Carly on decor, games, etc, every night that week, and VK was smack dab in the middle of midterms. But apparently we do our best thinking and planning under the wire so in just 5 days, a few trips to the party store, 4 google docs, and 9 christmas ornaments-turned-to-planets later, we had the Bonino backyard turned into a gallactic outerspace experience - literally outer-space, we were outside since it was 80 that day.

Under our overhang, we had all nine planets-yes pluto is a planet for our party purposes-that carly pained on some Christmas ornaments-thank you K-Mart for reminding us Christmas is around the corner. We had delicious apps, some Martian margaritas, space toys spread throughout the space (no pun intended). It was an intimate crowd and group of people that we've known for years so it was the perfect opportunity for us to all catch up (even though we all pretty much live in a 15-minute (and that's pushing it) radius).

And what party of ours is complete without entertainment? We started out the crowd on a quick 9-question game with a questionarire that they complete with questions regarding Space and Julia & Jeremy. We then graded the test and gave them a glow-necklace with some planet pins that they got to keep on all night. And why stop the entertainment there? Since it was mostly our families and people who know us well, Carly, VK and I thought we would take this opportunity to show off our musical talents as a tribute to Julia. So we decided to take some space-y songs and mix them with one of Julia's favorites to create: Space Collaboration (copyright DJ Carly DeMarchena 2011). Imagine the opening sequence to 2001: A Space Oddessy and three girls walking (as if we were in space) with paper bags painted like space helmets on their heads. Still with me? Then add the beginning snippit to Space Jam (what we did for a talent show, back in the 4th or 5th day) with some sweet dance moves. Add the first verse to Men in Black (which Julia and VK were for halloween one year), with some lyrics specifically pertaining to Julia and Jeremy. And polish it up with a couple of verses (also new lyrics) from Backstreet Boy's, "The One". Nevermind the fact that out of the three of us, we couldn't even hit one note correctly, nevermind the fact that our dancing is somewhat elementary, nevermind the fact that it was dark out so people couldn't really see us (that was somewhat planned), we wowed the crowd.

Like I said it was great to catch up with everyone and it was a super fun night!

Who writes songs about that?!

Today as I went to go pick up Marko and Lady Di from the airport, I had my radio set to my usual station. They’ve been doing this new thing lately when a new single comes is played, there’s a quick sound bite from the singer in the beginning talking about why they like their new single (besides the fact that they’re getting cash money for it being played at that very moment), why they wrote it, why you should like it, blah blah blah. And the new single from Christina Perry, which follows this formula, is the title track for the new Twilight movie that comes out next month.

So she’s telling us that she loves the song, yada yada yada and then tells us she wrote it because of the strong love between the two main characters (who, spoiler alert, get married in the last book...I’ve never read a page but the previews totally give it away. I’d be upset if I cared). Well, I just about fell out of my the driver’s seat when I heard that baloney. Writing a song because of the main characters love story? Really? That could be the dumbest thing I have heard all weekend. Back in the day, when I was under the impression that I had a beautiful singing voice, I wrote what I thought would be the next number one hit, but never once did I write a song based fictional characters and their love story! Sorry I had no songs about Ross and Rachel from Friends or Zach Morris and Kelly Kapowski, or, to stick with the vampire theme, Buffy and Angel. Even as an aspiring music writer at the tender age of 10 or so, I knew I wouldn't be taken seriously if I wrote about that! And she's the one with the singing career?

I can honestly say that my 4th grade written songs were about things in the real world, like how I’ll one day meet NSYNC or how I would overcome the odds and be a music superstar. Real issues here people.

What to do, what to do...

Wednesday night, I come home from work and when I walked in the house, I was surprised to see my mom reading the newspaper and Lisa reading a book. Now, when your family works like clockwork something like this can be jarring. For example when I get home, Lady Di is almost always watching a cooking show sitting on the couch and Lisa is almost always upstairs on her computer (if she’s home). I had no choice but to be thrown off when I walked in and they were doing something so un-electronic. Well our TV, phone and internet all went out, so essentially we went Amish.

At first, I though, ok, no big deal. Then I was thinking about what I could do since the cable was out and a couple of times, I thought, ugh, fine I’ll watch something online. Nope, can’t do that since the internet is out. But then why is our power on? That’s because it’s just our internet, cable and phone that’s out. This was a conversation that I had with myself a few times that night. Not sure why it was so hard for me to figure it out, and I definitely had some issues remembering it.

I’ll also be the first to admit that we went through a range of emotions. We went from annoyance that it was out, to confusion when we were trying to figure what we could do, to shocked to the 12 hour window that AT&T gave us to come fix it, and then to pissed off when we realized that we were missing Modern Family. Actually I was also annoyed the next morning when I couldn’t watch Good Morning America while I was eating breakfast (since that’s about all the news I can handle).

But thank goodness AT&T came and fixed it Thursday so we didn’t have to continue our Amish-kick. And having 24 hours off from TV, Internet & phone was different but I won’t tell you that it was life changing because how different can it be with just 24 hours so it was more of a cleanse! But Im not hoping to go through another one any time soon. I need my internet...oh hell, and my TV too :o)

And Russell Brand Makes 12

And now, the shocking conclusion to our LA trip!

There’s very slim chance that there’s a place in LA that we DIDN’T hit on Saturday. We were all over the map. First we dined at Rosco’s in Altadena with the Bonino-Britschs for chicken and waffles—some of had that exact combo, some of us had just waffles, some of us had Big Mamma’s Special, and it was sinfully delicious! After that breakfast, we decided to walk some of it off so we headed to Pasadena, did some shopping to boost their ever dwindling economy--yeah right, we’ve all seen the Rose Parade. With only an hour worth of quarters to stick in the meter we and hopped back in the car and made our way towards Hollywood with everyone and their mother. Now in retrospect it was not the best idea, since it was a beautiful Saturday afternoon in LA and we knew it was going to be packed but thanks to Tom legit Repetto who lent us his parking pass, we parked under the Kodak and walked out onto the Walk of Fame.

We hemmed and hawed for bit whether we should take a tour of the Star homes, or if we should just walk, but we decided to get on the van (with a slurpee and packed in the last row like a can of sardines) and hope to see a celeb. We climbed Mulhouland Drive, and saw lots of houses, Quintin Tarrantino, Courtney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, the street Zac Efron lives down (we yelled for the driver to “hang a left!!!” but George our driver didn’t listen), two of Elvis’s houses, the house Michael Jackson died in (it’s been abandoned for the past 2 years-that gives me the creeps!), and many more. Most notably, Katy Perry and Russell Brand’s new house, that they supposedly just moved into in May. So as we were all staring up and admiring the red awning through the trees, George yells, “oh wait! There’s Russell Brand!” He was pulling out of his driveway in his tricked out Range Rover and if we weren’t smushed in the back, I’m sure we would have lost Carly. Side bar: now she talks the big talk about not really caring about the celebrities but when she sees one out among the living, she really loses her shit! When we saw Marg Helgenburger, she almost took me down. Ok back to the story, so we see Russell Brand, Carly’s about ready to jumpout of the van and I was screaming at Lisa to take a picture, but she was taking her sweet ass time, so I have no photographic evidence. Therefore, no photo for the blog. You can bet I’m not going to let her forget that one.

We saw some more houses, all throughout Beverly Hills, but no more stars (and yes I was holding the camera at that point) down to Santa Monica Blvd, and eventually made our way back to Hollywood. We had a free ticket to Madam Tousoud’s Wax Museum where we kept a steady pace as we saw all the stars we never saw on our tour. We saw Brit, JT, Beyonce, Zac Efron, Conan O’Brien, the gang was all there. Definitely cool to walk through, but glad we got our free ticket.

Finally our dogs were barking so we decided to head back to Los Feliz and relive our excitement. I HIGHLY recommend taking a star homes tour, in fact, next time I want to take the TMZ one...maybe I’ll help them break a major celeb story and then be an E! correspondant. Yes, I think that’s what will happen.

Un-Trendy

Sadly, it appears that my birthday has come and gone. Although I am a firm believer in celebrating as long as humanly possible (usually runs about a month) others aren’t so keen on that idea. Rather being the last one singing happy birthday (and in this case to myself) I went to the masses and asked people to celebrate for as long as I could get them to, so away to LA we went!

So Friday, we got on a plane with Lisa and flew south, landing in beautiful Burbank before Regis and Kelly was even over. We spent a majority of our day with Nonni, although her attention on us was soon deflected when Marko, who was down in LA for a court appearance, waltzed right into the house like he owned the place to surprise Nonni, and after a quick lunch, he made Lisa and I drive him back to the airport.

Well, since we were already on the freeway, we decided to head downtown and go to FIDM, as Sarah was wrapping up her class, and kicked it in the campus museum seeing FABULOUS, an exhibit showcasing fashion from the past 200 years. There were some hits (Alexander McQueen) and some misses (the Crayola dress- a bonafide hot mess-in my professional opinion). We walked out a few minutes before Sarah and when we were sitting on a bench for 10 minutes, and BOY did I stick out like a sore thumb. There I was in my Gap zip up, light jeans and flippy floppies, walking amongst the boho chic, trendy and put together people of Los Angeles. People knew I was no student.

So rather than wait around to get ridiculed for our pathetic appearance, we hopped over to the Standard Hotel, went up to the rooftop bar and enjoyed a delicious mojito overlooking all of downtown, including Café Pinot! It was a beautiful day in LA so it was perfect to chill up there, and I could definitely imagine my Entourage buddies kicking it there on a lazy afternoon. Definitely a place to go back to but I was still way under-dressed.

Eventually, we made it back to Nonni’s for some bomb pizza and Carly and Kate finally flew in to join in on the fun. And rather than end the the night there, we hopped in the rental car and went to Dillion’s pub in Hollywood for $3 beers. We kicked it there for a while, along with most of Hollywood and when we decided to call it a night, were decided it was definitely our scene when our tab was cheaper than parking, yes this was definitely my kind of place, and I was finally appropriately dressed..

And so goes 23...

It's my final day of being 23 and looking back on the past year, I have to say it was solid. Here are 3 high points and in no particular order:

1. Winning $500 on my birthday! My fave radio station had a promotion where listeners had to simply enter a contest and if they call your name at 8, 12, 5, you have 10 minutes to call back. I signed up solely because I wanted to win $500 and I jokingly said it would be awesome if I won on my birthday. I hoped I would win from my pals, Sarah and Vinnie, but no dice and didn't pay attention in the 12:10 hour when they called my name. But thank goodness for my boss's husband who heard my name and tracked me down. What a way to start off 23!

2. Being MOH. So many awesome things about this. From the being drunk on power, planning, visits and of course the VEGAS, I loved being part of Team Wedding. Sarah and Tom's wedding was ridiculously awesome (thank goodness we got the pictures so we can recap for years!) and July 3rd was definitely a sad day as I relinquished my crown.

3. Italia! We went for Marko's 60th Birthday and as much as I hate flying, it was a super fun trip. After we spent some time with everyone and their mother in Roma, then Lisa and I went to Austria for a few days to explore and I am SO happy we did, that was one place I regretted not going when I studied abroad. We trained it back to Italy for 12 hours and finally ended back in the mother land and kicked it with Nonni (and eventually the p-units) and the relatives for a few days before heading home. Definitely worth it!

Surprise, surprise I can't think of anything and I am getting sleepy. Maybe I'll post some new ones when they come to me. But in the likely event that it doesn't happen, it's been real and it's been fun 23....but now it's on to 24!

Kudos and Boos...delayed version

Kudos that the month of October is here! My favorite month because of the obvious...my birthday! But with a new month brings some new monthly goals and by just looking at the calendar, it looks like it's gonna be a quick, busy month! Starting with a trip this weekend to LA, then participating in the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival, an engagement party and wrapping it up with Halloween. Bring it on.

Boos: New Jersey Houswives imploding! Last week some mysterious bombshells dropped and not only do we have no idea who the key players are but we have to wait until next season to see what happened since no one is talking, and his season is just wrapping up (it could easily be the longest season ever). As much as I loved this show at the beginning of the season, they're just too much sometimes and beginning to lose me as a fan. We still have one more episode to go this season, and I can only imagine that the reunion show will be a doosie. Only time will tell I suppose.

Kudos to Arrested Development! My prayers have been answered and not only are they doing a movie BUT they are also bringing it back for a few episodes. Now this was super smart, rather than just jump straight into a movie and waste half of the movie setting up story lines, they are going to take the episodes to set them up and then have a super good movie! I cannot wait. The writing is genius, the characters are AWESOME and I can still laugh out loud whenever I watch it. If you haven't seen it, what are you doing? Go watch it!

Boos to Jersey Housewives not knowing who the current the vice president is. This question was during the most recent episode and directed towards Melissa, Teresa and Kathy. Not your most shining moment on TV, and believe me, this season set the bar pretty high-or rather low.

Kudos to Melissa McCarthy on SNL this week. She's on a roll and just keeps getting better! I'm surprised she's finally getting the recognition that she deserves since she was on Gilmore Girls! Looks like I was ahead of the group--surprise surprise :o)

Boos to, well I got nothing so moving on!

Happy Belated Birthday Lady Di!!

I'm two days late, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY LADY DI!

She had a great day -- I was working so I'll have to take her word for it. But the San Carlos Bonino's showered her with love and attention. We went to this pop-ping Italian restaurant in Palo Alto, Osteria. This place was sinfully delicious and PACKED! When we walked in I thought, Oh silly Marko, you didn't need to throw a fit about reservations last week there's plenty of places to sit. Then no sooner do we sit down, that I start to feel claustrophobic and have flashbacks to Italy! Well that and that Lisa and I killed a bottle of white wine between the two of us. The food was delicious and if I were a yelper, I'd yelp about that Sole that I had--e buona! And of course we completed the night with some delicious Vanilla Moon cupcakes--again if I were a Yelper! All in all, a solid evening!

Oh but the celebrations don't end there...we're having a "joint" birthday celebration tomorrow night, but Lady Di has already picked the menu AND the dessert. Some "joint" celebration Lady Di! "Oh Julie, you can pick a side dish..." Surprise, surprise.

Lion King 3D

Last night I finally got to see the Lion King on the big screen in 3D. To say that it was awesome would be a bit of an understatement. Carly and I watched our dear friend Simba go from "cub who has it all" to "cub set up by mean uncle and thinks he inadvertantly killed his father" to "nomad" to well, I dont want to be a spoiler so we'll leave it at nomad. Anywho, what's not to love about the Lion King? The music is phenom, the jokes are constant and the story arc is just solid.

Once we got to the theater, we wrestled the other 7 people in the audience for some seats (we strategically placed ourselves away from other people so they weren't annoyed with our siging, comments, etc.), put on my glasses THEN my 3-D glasses and we anxiously awaited the movie. This was my second 3D movie (I am not one for them seeing as the only other time I did I thought I'd toss my cookies), so wasn't really sure how much was "in your face" but I was actually surprised that it wasn't too bad. And we had to get past the fact that it is not the Honey I Shrunk the Audience or Muppet 3D attractions at Disneyland. We kept thinking that they would throw stuff at us or make us think that there's mice are at our feet, but was pleasantly surprised that it was just more projected. And, boy the opening sequence was downright AWESOME. And there was one point, when Rafiki finds Adult Simba and he leads Simba to the pool to talk to Mufasa and the water was coming out into the audience and Carly and I both said in unison, "ooooooohhhhhhhhh!"

I forgot how awesome this movie is but it did make me feel bad for today's kids. They don't get the classics like we did. Don't get me wrong I LOVE Pixar movies, they're awesome, but you don't see animals and inantimate objects singing hits. In fact that could be my only complaint about the Pixar movies. And Disney only releasing this for 2 weeks...absolute genius. Just think if they were to start releasing other classics, Beauty and the Beast, Aladin, etc it would be their best move ever because people like me and Carly would be all about it.

Oh Facebook.com

Remember when Facebook used to be simple? Today when I logged on, I saw the new and improved home page, equipped with suggestions for stories, posts, what have you. All things that may just be interesting to you (they're flagged for crying out loud), and a immediate status update tracker that follows you. And of course, 90 percent of the stories that are "most recent" are people complaining about the new updates! Do you see the irony here?

Back in the day when facebook used to just be for college people, it seems like you really had to do some hardcore investigating work to find out some gossip, who was dating who, what people did on a Friday night, what people were saying on other people's walls. You really had to be interested in someone to find out dirt. Now, what seems like a thousand updates later, it's like they're throwing useless information (although it could mean the world to the person who posts--much like this blog) at your face. You can't help but know that so and so broke up, that your friends are meeting up at Happy Hour without you, what your old baby sitter who lives across the country is having for dinner. It's all waiting for you when you log on. And now it's flagged so you have to deliberately close your eyes before seeing latest and greatest.

So, my question is why all the latest improvements? Do we need to hone our stalking abilities even further? Were people slacking off? I am not sure. But I have noticed a pattern that at first everyone hates, and in a flash, people will wonder how we ever did without it...case and point, status updates. Which by the way, I suppose I should go update mine. :o)

Tunnel Vision

This is what happens when we try to be spontaneous. Thursday night at Happy Hour, Kate, Carly and I decide to go to the Rascal Flatts concert at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View. We joked about going and within 2 hours we had tickets--very unlike us. So decide to take the train to Mountain View, hop in a cab to get to the theater. So that's all well and fine, except we pick a cabbie who believed that traffic laws were merely suggestions, we cheated death a couple of times.

So fast forward to the end of the opener, mother of like 26 kids Sara Evans, and after two tall boys of beer each we all had to use the disgusting port-a-potties. So we made our way to the top of the lawn section and waited in line, where Carly runs into a St. Charles mom, chatted it up and that's where we got separated. After we get out, Kate and I walk over to the pole that we said to meet at after the bathrooms, but couldn't find her (and also we had terrible reception so we couldn't text or call her). Being the good friends we are, we gave up and booked it to the bar and then back down to the blanket. Somehow Kate got a text from Carly saying that she was up at the bar, so I had my two beers in my hand (Kate only had one) and attempted to go find her and right before I left Kate told me that she would come look for me in 10 minutes. As soon as I got to the bar I realized this was a dumb idea because she knew we were at the blanket and I was on a time constraint, so I turned around. No sooner to I decide this, I see this blob moving towards me at a rapid pace and all of the sudden the next thing I knew, I was down on the ground with beer all over me.

What was going through my mind? Well first, OUCH! Then holy crap, I gotta get out of this situation in case any one I know is around, then son of a bitch I just washed these jeans and finally, sad face, there goes those two drinks. I was probably on the ground for maybe 2 seconds, popped back up, checked my pockets for my phone and wallet and got the hell out of there. I made my way back down to the blanket, found the girls relatively quickly and came up to them with my hair drenched in beer, mud on my pants, a bruised bum and hurt ego, and yelled in a wailing kind of voice, "I AM NOT OK!" The look on their face was somewhat priceless because I looked like I just took a shower.

Eventually I pulled my beer hair back and pushed through with a sore bum and muddy jeans. It was a pretty solid evening, even with my accident. But I think this was the wake up call I needed to be more aware of my surroundings!

Up All Night: A Review

So, when paroozing Hulu to find an old Parks and Rec (perhaps one of my fave shows) show to watch, the hero banner was advertising the pilot for the new show, "Up All Night" with Will Arnett, Christina Applegate and Mya Rudolph. I am a lover for all of Will Arnett's shows. "Arrested Development" perhaps one of the best shows ever on TV, "Running Wilde" I think Lisa and I were the only people who watched it, but it was super funny. And I loved all of Christina Applegate's shows and Mya Rudolph is super funny too. When I heard that these three powerhouses were all going to star in a show, I knew it was going to be good, I am only disappointed that I didn't realize that it premiered last night (and I call myself a fan). So I was shockingly appreciative when I spotted it on Hulu (I'll save my distaste for Hulu for another post).

Here's what I'm thinking about the show...enormous potential. The opening scene gets you laughing when they find out their pregnant--what's not to love when scripted shows bleep out words! The characters are all lovable--Arnett is charismatic and definitely makes you laugh and his counterpart Applegate is funky with a splash of OCD, and then you throw Rudolph in there and the whole thing is shot to hell (I think she proved herself in Bridesmaids this summer)! Now, there's not a whole lot to go on since pilots are always a little lame, but I definitely was chuckling throughout the show. I give it a couple of episodes and it will be the talk of the celeb blogs--I can bet I'll be chatting about it.

So, hit up Hulu and check out Up all Night!

Happy Birthday Repettos!

I fail. I haven't blogged in almost a week, so I missed a couple of good topics I wanted to highlight, most notably Sarah's birthday on Sunday. But thank goodness her husband's birthday is today so I can give a huge birthday shout out to the Repettos!

Sooo....Happy Birthday Sarah and Tom! I'm sorry I can't celebrate RIGHT this minute because you know how I feel about birthdays but in good time.

My Curse: Positivity

This sort of thing has happened to me a couple of times. When you think something super good is coming at you, and then it's nothing short of lame.

So on Friday morning of last week, I received an email from the Mail Room guys at work saying that I had an envelope waiting for me and since I don't have a designated cube, I need to come claim it. Since I was working from home Friday, I contemplated for a hot minute going in and seeing what it was--I NEVER get mail at work--then realized that was dumb so fired off a quick email saying I'll check in with them on Tuesday. So, this allowed for a nice long while for me to sit-and-ponder the possibilities of this envelope. Could if it be offer letter? A letter saying I got my own cube? A contract to get a work phone? Blah, blah, blah, those were just the tip of the iceberg.

I strolled in on Tuesday morning and no sooner do I take a sip of coffee that I fire off another email and said, "I'm HERE! Where can I pick it up?" No word back for quite a while and my day is starting to stack up so I give them a call, ask where they are located, and the guy on the other end mutters something about being between B & C by the coffee room. Side note--I'm in a building around the corner from the main campus, so it makes sense that he was talking about the main campus blgs B & C where a major coffee place is, and not in a section of B & C cubes by our coffee break room, but I didn't get that. So I wander over to what I think it is and look like a fool peaking around and trying to find this mysterious envelope. Eventually I threw in the towel cause I had to get back to work.

So I tried again this morning and email again asking "where can I get this" and finally a nice man named Juan calls me and tells me he'll drop it off in a half hour. I do my best not to shy away from my desk so I don't miss him--in case I need to sign for it, don't you know. An hour and a half later Juan appears, drops off this 6x9 envelope and is on his merry way. I sign nothing, it doesn't weigh a ton, it's just got my name on it. I almost give myself a papercut when I rip it open and find that it's a stupid certificate saying that I completed that training course last month. Talk about anti-climactic.

Yes that's right this has happened to me a couple of times. Once in college, I got a fat envelope in my mailbox--had to be the beginning of dorm living--and I open it eager to see what it is and it's a bank statement. And of course who could forget the time I come home to an empty house that looked like it was left in a hurry and am convinced that my parents thought it was at that moment that they had to run out and buy me a present. Only to find out later a family member died. Yes, my eagerness for exciting things is my curse.

Jury Duty...The Conclusion

Well that was a quick saga. Today I did my civic responsibility and called in at 11:15 and was told that I did not have to report for duty. Rats! No neighbor dispute, no murder trial, no listening to legal jargon pretending to understand, nothing. Instead I am just in the clear for the next year.

I suppose I'll have to put off my memoir of a juror until next year...

Jury Duty...Part One

Dear Kate,

Tonight I was scheduled to call in to see if I were to report for my civic duty tomorrow morning bright and early. Seeing as this is my first time being called for the JD (and I'm almost 24--side note: festivities are already in the planning stages), I was somewhat pumped mostly really to see the inside of the Court House. Although the timing is not really ideal, seeing as work is a little cray-cray at the moment, I have to say it would be pretty bomb diggity if I were on a case. Well not something like a murder because that's scary andI have a weak stomach, or a divorce, cause that's sad but maybe something like a neighbor fence dispute or a nice speeding ticket case, just preferably nothing with blood. But I got home tonight I checked the San Mateo Court website to see if I am to come in tomorrow and I got a message saying that I need to call back in tomorrow morning at 11!

I will say this though, the San Mateo County court system is pretty awesome. We only have to call in once (or in my case check back in in the morning) but we don't have to call in Monday through Friday checking in--unlike soooooommmmeee places. And then there are the even more annoying places that make you call in all week then bring you in on a Thursday and put you on a "quick" trial Friday that spills over to Monday when you're supposed to be in San Francisco that weekend. But I'm not going to name names. ;o)

New Season of Dancing with the "Stars"

Dear Kate,

It's been a week since my last blog, but news has been rather slow and I've hit a writers block, but something caught my eye tonight on my celeb websites, "Dancing with the Stars" announced their latest round of contestants. Now I don't watch this show but this list has been so hush-hush this summer, and now that it's finally all confirmed, well talk about anti-climactic.

I don't know who was part of the think tank for this one--well probably the same people who were in on the last round--but boy oh boy, this one is chalk-full of reality and not so sure why they're famous in the first place stars. Although they do have some gems like David Arquette (giving the bloggers and paparazzi something to chatter about if estranged wife Courtney and daughter Coco are in the audience every week) and my fave news correspondant, Nancy Grace (I can just hear her now, "I am sick, SICK, to my stomach when I think of those scores that those judges gave me") the rest are just some who have made the news in the past month or so. For example, Kristin Cavalari the Laguna Beach star who just got dumped by her finacee--she's my age btws and Rob Kardashian who was part of the circus, excuse me, wedding for his sister Kim last weekend, and who can forget George Clooney's infamous ex, Elsabetta something, who, well to be honest I have no idea why she's famous besides dating George.

I think that the lack of stars should be a signal to rename the show to "Dancing with the Residents of the Metropolitan LA area"

Wedding Dress Overkill

There’s a trend that Hollywood has really taken to and Im not all about it. No, it’s nothing crazy like the Boho trend of 2005, but rather the multiple wedding dress trend. Seriously, I just don’t get it. Kim Kardashian, the latest offender, took it above and beyond and had 3, yes 3, costume changes during her nuptials this past weekend. And it was not just changing her dress, but also a hairdo upgrade, and probably some jewelry changes. Even her new hubby had a costume change!

So let’s look at this logically. A wedding typically lasts what 8-10 hours? Possibly longer if it’s a damn good party. But when you factor in all of the elements of a wedding (pre-ceremony, ceremony, photos, cocktail hour, dinner, dancing, and all the mingling with guests--and in Kim’s case, 450 guests), you’re too busy changing your clothes to enjoy the wedding. Not to mention, do you really even have the energy to change your dress, let alone twice?! Most couples talk about how fast the day goes, so who wants to waste it going from wardrobe to wardrobe? Are people going to start taking it to the next level and start changing their clothes in between chats with each guest?

Ok, so we’ve established that it’s a waste of time. But my other bother with it is that it takes away the specialness of your wedding dress. People shop high and low trying to find the perfect dress that they get married in it and she can’t wait to get out of it? Not to mention the cash money that’s dropped (especially in Kim’s case where she had a Vera, which was probably custom). Their argument is that that they want a dress for the reception that they can move around in. What are these people thinking? I only buy clothes I can move around in.

It’s not just Kim though, most celebrity women are doing it, Trista Rehn from the Bachelorette (who I think started it), Carrie Underwood, even my fave Kate Middleton, the list will only go on. Good thing we have people like Sarah Repetto who find their perfect dress stay in it all day, mostly because I would have picked it up and started wearing it myself :o)

Kudos and Boos

Kudos: Kim Kardashian got hitched yesterday! I am sure that you were on the edge of your seats wondering what was going to happen, but she is now a married lady. And don’t be surprised if her new hubby wins the next NBA series seeing as those Kardashian women seem to have a lucky streak about them. When Kim was dating Reggie Bush, the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl in 2010. After Khloe married Lamar in 2009, the LA Lakers won the NBA finals in 2010. Just don’t be surprised when it happens, that’s all I’m saying! But congrats to the bride and groom, blah blah blah.

Boos: With all of the hype surrounding the preparation of this wedding, the only photos floating around the internet are crappy ones. We can’t get a decent shot of Kim! US Weekly is trying to show us what Kourtney and Khloe’s dresses look like, but the photo quality is awful and then they try and show us a photo of Kim, but here’s a white tent in the way! Why bother putting them up? Then, why is it so hard to actually get a photo of Kim? She was giving interviews up until Saturday. We get more photos of surprise weddings than this hoopla.

Kudos: Kate and I are taking this workout class, Total Body Transformation, taught by a Raiderette. Well. we’re 99% sure she’s a Raiderette since she’s got all this Raider gear AND is not there to mess around (that means always yelling and trying to trick me into doing pushups--I don’t think so). And boy yesterday was a doozy, she makes us work hard for our coffee, but you do walk out of the class with a firm sense of accomplishment and convinced you sweat off a solid five lbs.

Boos: The day after TBT. Actually, as we decided last night, exactly 12 hours after that class. Your body starts to hate you awfully fast and makes you feel the pain for a couple of days after the fact. Definitely moving a little slower today and letting out a loud "OWWW" when I have to stand, move my arms, crunch, well essentially any movement kills.

Kudos: The Killers. Yesterday afternoon, I was going to do a little rest, so I browsed through some Watch Instantly movies and came across the Killers (movie with Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Hiegel). I thought it would put me to sleep in an instant, but it kept my attention for the whole movie. I know I might be the only person on the planet who thought that, but it was a fun and enjoyable flick! And not to mention Katherine’s character is a Symantec employee. A yeah ya!

Boos: Netflix’s latest business plan. This is so stupid, they want to split up the Watch Instantly and Disc deals, which are currently under one nice price, but with their latest deal, it will essentially double the price if you want to continue both services. At first I said, oh well, whatever, but now I keep thinking about it and realize I'm getting taken for a ride! I’m torn on what to do seeing as I stream movies all the time and all the good movies are DVD only so I am contemplating both, but really Netflix? Really? Man just trying to make that extra buck! I'll keep you posted on my decisions!

Off to another week!

Nice little surprise

Dear Kate,

Well the universe was out of whack last week. I was working and my dad was on vacation. Didn't think that would ever happen! But needless to say I was very sad that they were all relaxing and having fun on the beach while I was chillin in my cube, working away, making sure that the world knows about their data information systems. Actually, I can't remember the last time I actually worked the first week of August. Working is way overrated when it comes to missed vacations.

But I powered through the week and made it to Saturday for Leah and Josh's wedding (soooo fun btws!)! While I was VIP at the wedding the fam bam had the big dinner for Nonno Floyd's birthday and a farewell to the beach. It is one of my favorite dinners, so I made sure everyone knew that they missed me, giving them crap that it wouldn't be the same without me, telling them make sure they don't choke on the tiramisu, blah blah blah. Now, mind you I was at a fantastic wedding but I had to make sure they know that they couldn't have any fun without me.

But I suppose I made an impression on them because when I finally checked the mail today I saw that there was a card waiting -- really waiting, I didn't check the mail for 4 days -- and everyone sent me a card saying that they missed me! Now only if I got the card when it came rather than the night before they come home...

Mini-Vacay

In 25 hours, I will be aboard a plane bound for my haven, San Clemente, for a quick weekender. Sadly, due to my previous vacations, I have to combine all of my SC activities into 2.5 days because I can't spend the week down there, but I have faith that it will be off the hook. Surprisingly, I have gotten a head start (meaning more than 4 hours before departure) on the packing--I know shocker--but I'm not going to go on and on about my hatred of packing and just follow my new motto, "throw it in the bag." And this picture so clearly paints that I overpack but hey, I'm proud of it.

You may be asking, what fun things are you doing in San Clemente, Julie? Well, that's a wonderful question, Kate. I plan on kicking it on the pier with my fave Fisherman's Margarita first thing. Then of course, other items on my to-do list include kicking it on the beach, kicking it by the pool, kicking it with the fam, maybe some tennis, maybe. But essentially a whole lot of relaxing and soaking up the sun! I don't think I'll be able to achieve a stable tan in time for the wedding next weekend, well without the help of Lady Jergens.

Even with a detailed list of funtivities like that I still have probably about twice what I really need. But, like I care! I gotta be prepared, you never know who you may run into -- ahem, perhaps a Real Housewife of Orange County -- a girl can dream...

Only 6 hours of work standing in the way though. And you know those hours are going to drag.